First Ice Cream Festival Features Contests, Vendors, Live Music

Wednesday

Apr 3, 2013 at 5:45 PM

"I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream." No one has metaphorically screamed more for ice cream in Florida than John Santarpia.

By MATT REINSTETLETHE LEDGER

"I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream." No one has metaphorically screamed more for ice cream in Florida than John Santarpia. Santarpia, president and CEO of Magnify Credit Union, became interested in ice cream when his South Lakeland branch inherited a Bruster's ice cream shop in 2009. He went to the Austin Ice Cream Festival in Texas later that year and thought Lakeland and Florida should have an ice cream festival of its own.The first Florida Ice Cream Festival, presented by Magnify, will be Saturday at Joker Marchant Stadium in Lakeland. Santarpia said he is expecting 3,000 people to come throughout the day."We hope that it can go on every year. It's an event that families can look forward to that supports our community and our city, Polk County and Lakeland," Santarpia said.Unlike the other festivals that featured a limited number of vendors, the Florida Ice Cream Festival will feature 24 vendors selling frozen dessert products, ranging from traditional ice cream and Popsicles to Italian ice and frozen custard. There will also be a wide array of non-ice-cream-related options. Patrons can pay for food items with Moo-Lah, which works similar to Pig Bucks at Pigfest.What is sure to be a big draw to the festival is the competitive ice cream eating contests. The main event will be the Magnify Credit Union World Ice Cream Eating Championship at 4:30 p.m. Several professionals from Major League Eating, including Joey Chestnut, the No. 1 competitive eater in the world, will appear. There is a $4,300 prize purse up for grabs, and former Lakeland Dreadnaught and Lakeland Raider Kendrick Stewart will be representing Lakeland.Chestnut, 27, has won the Nathan's Famous Fourth of July Hot Dog Eating Contest at Coney Island, N.Y., five years running.Sam Barclay, master of ceremonies for Major League Eating, said this is the first time ice cream has been featured on the Major League Eating schedule in three years. "Obviously, with an ice cream event it's going to be fascinating to see if Joey and the other contestants who are going to be there are able to deal with the obvious threat of the ice cream being cold and are they willing to battle through mentally, like a marathon runner when they hit ‘the wall' at mile 18," Barclay said.Other competitive eating contests include the Celebrity/Amateur Ice Cream Eating Contest featuring 10 local celebrities ranging from city government to radio at 3:20 p.m. At 3 p.m., the Polk County Sheriff's Office, Lakeland Police, Fire and Fire and Rescue will have teams of three rotating in trying to eat 10 pints of ice cream in the First Responders Ice Cream Eating Contest.All proceeds from the Florida Ice Cream Festival will go to the Magnify Life Foundation and The Detroit Tigers Foundation of Florida. Santarpia said he partnered with local schools to sell tickets, and all tickets sold at the schools goes directly toward the school."We felt that was good because it's a win-win. We want kids to come in, but we want the schools to benefit as well," he said.

Matt Reinstetle can be reached at matt.reinstetle@theledger.com or 802-7533. Follow Matt on Twitter @LedgerMatt.